The shrink packaging of food articles such as poultry, fresh red meat and processed meat products requires tough, puncture resistant, yet flexible film materials which are heat shrinkable. Most commonly these films are fabricated as bags into which the food articles are placed. The food article-containing bag is then evacuated and sealed either by clips or more commonly by heat sealing the bag inner surfaces together across the bag's open mouth end. The sealed, food article-containing bag is then heated, for example by hot air, infrared radiation or hot water, causing the bag to shrink in both the machine direction (MD) and the transverse direction (TD) against the contours of the contained food article or articles. For many applications the heat shrunk package must have good optical properties, either for aesthetic reasons or functional reasons or both. In some instances the film must have low haze so that the packaged article may be periodically inspected to insure continued package integrity.
For example, in commercial poultry shrink packaging operations, monolayer films formed from polyethylene or ethylene vinyl acetate polymers have been widely used. In general, polyethylenes such as linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) provide relatively high puncture resistance, high tensile strength, but relatively low biaxial shrink properties. On the other hand, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) provides relatively high shrink and limited tensile strength/puncture resistance. In some instances blends of various polyethylenes and EVA have been used to obtain a balance of these desirable properties, but with limited success.
Monolayer films are suitable for poultry packaging. However for fresh red meat and processed meat packaging, a high degree of oxygen and moisture barrier protection is essential, so the common practice has been to use multilayer films including an oxygen barrier as a core layer between at least one inner layer and one outer layer. Oxygen barriers include vinylidene chloride copolymers such as the vinyl chloride form (saran) and the methyl acrylate form (MA saran), hydrolyzed ethylene vinyl acetate (EVOH) and nylon. The innermost layer of such multilayer films is in direct contact with the stored food and is frequently referred to as the sealing layer. This is because the most common method of sealing heat shrinkable food packages of this type is by heating the mouth edges of the self adhering inner layers together under pressure. That is, the opposite inner surfaces of the film enclosure are sealed by heat. So the inner layer must be formed of a self-adhering material which seals (but does not melt) over an elevated temperature range imparted by commercially used equipment such as impulse sealers. The most commonly used material for the inner layer is EVA, either alone or in a blend with other thermoplastic polymers such as polyethylenes. Typically this inner layer is also the thickest layer of the multilayer film. For example, in a 2.5 mil thick film the inner layer of a three layer film may comprise about 60% of this total thickness.
The outer layer of oxygen-barrier type multilayer films is often referred to as the abuse layer, because it must withstand abrasion from sliding contact with external objects during normal handling, as well as resistance to puncture from contact with external sharp articles. Outer layers are commonly formed of polyethylenes or EVA or blends thereof. Typically the outer layer of a three layer film comprise about 20-35%, the barrier layer comprises about 10-25%, and the inner layer comprises about 55-70% of the total film thickness.
It should also be recognized that since food articles such as primal and sub-primal fresh meat cuts often have sharp edges or protruding bones, the multilayer film must have good resistance to puncturing from the inside.
It has previously been indicated that whereas EVA affords high biaxial heat shrink properties, its strength properties such as tensile strength and puncture resistance are inferior to polyethylenes such as LLDPE, which unfortunately have relatively low biaxial heat shrink. These limitations have been partially overcome by the discovery of ethylene alpha olefin copolymers known as very low density polyethylene (hereinafter VLDPE), also called "ultra low density polyethylene" (ULDPE) and use of same in heat shrinkable films as for example described in Lustig et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,769. According to the latter, VLDPE may be used in either the aforedescribed monolayer films for non-barrier poultry shrink packaging or in the inner and/or outer layers of a multilayer oxygen barrier type film. When used in either manner, it provides substantially higher shrink than other polyethylenes such as LLDPE, yet imparts higher strength and puncture resistance than EVA. Accordingly, use of prior art types of VLDPE has permitted the practitioner to achieve biaxial heat shrink properties approaching those of EVA without sacrificing the high tensile strength/puncture resistance properties of polyethylene.
In addition to the prior art types of VLDPE, other ethylene alpha olefins are manufactured with elastomeric properties and these commercially available materials are hereinafter referred to as "prior art ethylene alpha olefin plastomers". Some of these have densities in the same range as VLDPE's but have greatly different physical properties due to differences in manufacturing processes. For example, it appears that prior art ethylene alpha olefin plastomers and VLDPE are manufactured with different catalyst systems. One manufacturer of these prior art materials is Mitsui Petrochemicals Ltd., and they sell prior art ethylene-butene plastomer copolymers under the name "Tafmer". These materials are used in blends with other thermoplastic polymers in various applications such as films to provide improved shrink, flexibility, and in some instances improved strength. However, unlike VLDPE's, these prior art ethylene alpha olefins are too weak for use as monolayer biaxially oriented heat shrinkable films in the pure component form. By way of illustration, the prior art Tafmer materials either cannot be extruded into a primary tube, or if this is accomplished cannot be expanded for biaxial orientation by the well-known double bubble method without bubble breakage.
While the prior art has improved the heat shrink and physical strength properties of biaxially stretched films (both monolayer and multilayer types) by using blends of thermoplastic polymers such as EVA, prior art VLDPE and prior art ethylene alpha olefin plastomers, there is a need for biaxially stretched films with even higher heat shrink and higher physical strength properties than heretofore available. Moreover in some instances such blending improves physical properties but adversely affects optical properties because of incompatibilities between blended resins.
One object of this invention is to provide a heat shrinkable biaxially stretched thermoplastic film with higher shrink properties than obtainable with EVA.
Another object is to provide a heat shrinkable biaxially stretched thermoplastic film with higher tensile strength properties than obtainable with prior art polyethylenes.
A further object is to provide a heat shrinkable biaxially stretched thermoplastic film with higher dynamic puncture resistance properties than obtainable with prior art polyethylenes.
A still further object is to provide a heat shrinkable biaxially stretched thermoplastic monolayer film formed of a single ethylene alpha olefin copolymer, with higher heat shrink, tensile strength and dynamic puncture resistance properties than obtainable with prior art EVA or polyethylenes.
Still another object is to provide a heat shrinkable biaxially stretched thermoplastic multilayer film of the oxygen barrier core layer type, with at least one inner or outer layer formed of an EVA-ethylene alpha olefin copolymer blend, with higher shrink, tensile strength and dynamic puncture resistance properties than obtainable with prior art EVA-polyethylene blends, yet good optical properties.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.